Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-03-19

That was all right; that was the course
Dunham had put her on
He went to the paddle-box and signaled
the engine to stop. Then he called man
and had the lead thrown. sTwenty-four.
Plenty of water" thought Durham, and
started the engine. He then went to the
Captains cabin and knocked. The Cap
tain did not hear the first time, and he
knocked again.
'sWho's therei'
sThe mate"
The Captain opened a port near the
head of his berth, and asked him what
the matter was. Dunham reported. The
Captain told him it was all right; that it
was foggy, and the roar Of the surf with
such sea on and no wind could be
heard ten miles. Durham rather thought
so, too, and went away. During this
parley, and while the mate stopped = few
minutes to look after things below, the
ship had made more than two miles head
way. BY the time Durham got on deck
again the roar of the surf was frightful.
He fairly screamed at the helmsman.
ttAbbottin
Gay, ay, sir"
t'How's her headi"
ssSou' by east, sir"
Amazingl Dunham ran to the paddle
box and jerked a signal. The engine
stopped. Then he rushed to the Cap
tainis door and called him out in the
name of the gods. Both few on deak.
There was no mistake about it; there
were the breakers not half mile ahead,
Judging by the sound, laundering and
boiling against the shore. Dunham had
almost run the ships head on shore, and
that, too, when she was holding pre-
cisely the same course by compass that
he had put her on fifty times before.
The Captain roared: ''WhatAs her
courseT'
''Sou' by east, sir"
'.Put her s0u'west.s
s'Sou'west, SIR echoed the man at the
wheel, and the wheel spun round and the
chains ratified. The Captain rushed to
the signal-bell and started the engine,
and got tie ship under good steering
headway. Scarcely had she started on
her new course when q scraping sound
was heard and felt-then bump, bump,
bump, as though the ship had been lifted
up and set down hard three times; then
a crash that sent the captain and mate on
their faces, and brought the smoke
stacks crashing through the decks, and
and snapped of the topmasts like pipe
stems. The ship had struck a sunken
rock, and began to fill at once.
Who got to shore, and how they got to
shore, matters not. II is the same old
story. The news spread on wings. Men
came and dragged the swollen corpses of
thei- friends out of the surf. or dug them
out of the sand, or identified them in the
shed, or paced the beach day after day,
looking out on the remorseless sea that
sullenly clung to its dead.
The captain and the wheelman. Alb,
bott, went to Portland together-Dun
ham they never found-and there the
talked over the strange affair and ell
hausted all their ingenuity in vain to
count for the loss of the ship when ar
the right course on a still night. VIA
the wrecking- tug was ready, they wsOr
out to the wreck. 1t still hung on
rocks. The bows were high out of wat
The two men climbed up into the whloc'
house. They unscrewed the compasss,lan
from its fastening and brought if "
shore. There they opened it, and len {
up the card and needle, and there Ia
little instrument of death-a b.
knife-blade Kni:
The handle and the rest of the -
were in little Joey Dunham's poke, -
had tried to pry out the glass, to SEE ,r'
made the card swing around so WI
held his knife by it, and in doing
broken the blade. He eoneealeI-
mischief and stole away.-AFuona -,